Mary Skelter

[skykiii]

Recently I got Mary Skelter 2 (which includes the first game) during a Switch sale. It's a first-person RPG where movement is along a grid, sorta like Wizardry or Might and Magic, and the setting and plot are.... interesting.

However, just a few hours in I've already had some issues.

One reason I don't play a lot of modern RPGs is they have a bad tendency not to explain basic gameplay elements. Mary Skelter has that exact issue--for example when you equip stuff, you get to see what all stats they affect... some of them are self-explanatory but there's four (simply labeled F, A, E, and W) that have, at the point I'm at, not been explained at all.

(Even the mechanics that have been explained are often explained poorly, and I swear there's one that tells you two different things).

Another issue I ran into was there's these things called "Jail Trials" which you can activate, and I activated two by mistake, thinking the game would give me more explanation of what these are and why I should do them... and then there was no way to un-activate them. It seems like once they're on, they're on permanently--my only option was to reload an earlier save.

That's why I'm posting... I'm hoping Kiwis who have played this can help me out, since the game itself is doing a shit job. This is an RPG I actually want to play more of but... I wanna know what this shit IS, and the game is doing a terrible job of filling me in.

Thanks in advance.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

I barely started it and never went back to it. Good to know it's a cryptic mess, when I go back to it I'll probably use a guide or something.

The art, music, and premise are good, hopefully it's worth figuring out.

 

[skykiii]

I barely started it and never went back to it. Good to know it's a cryptic mess, when I go back to it I'll probably use a guide or something.

The art, music, and premise are good, hopefully it's worth figuring out.

I played a little bit after posting.

So, part of my problem is I'm a retard (no shit, right?) F, A, E, W, I realized stand for Fire, Earth, Air, Water, and basically indicate whether you're strong or weak against any of those elements. According to a post on Gamefaqs, basically you wanna keep them at or above 100 in most cases.

I don't know if I would call Mary Skelter a "cryptic mess," but.... it is bad at explaining things, and I do feel like it introduces too many moving parts.

Apparently some of these issues were worse in the original Vita version, which also apparently had completely different dungeon maps.

So far I like the game but a part of me really wishes it were designed more like, say, Wizardry or the earlier Might and Magic games. I miss the pick-up-and-play simplicity those titles used to have. Used to be, the Fighter was the Fighter, and if he had a +1 Long Sword and the enemy dropped a +2 Long Sword, it was a clear and obvious improvement. Of course there was some depth in those days--I liked Phantasy Star's gimmick of "some weapons were weaker but could hit multiple enemies at once" for example--but see, that is something where the pros and cons are obvious and tangible. Nowadays with RPGs, its always abstract variable--one number goes up, another goes down, and what the fuck do these numbers even mean. I hate abstract. I need something real.

The thing that's keeping me going with Mary Skelter is I find the premise genuinely interesting.

EDIT: Reading further, there's apparently also an "Affection" or "Social Link" system where your player character can up their affinity with the Blood Maidens for battle benefits and I'm like.... fucking seriously? Again, what's wrong with just "this is the Paladin, they're fighters but with healing abilities and the ability to Turn Undead" like in the old days? Why do there need to be stupid variables?

 

[ShitLurker]

I have this on my wishlist for god knows how long, @skykiii did you keep going through it? Would you suggest it?

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I have this on my wishlist for god knows how long, @skykiii did you keep going through it? Would you suggest it?

I played the entire trilogy and somewhat enjoyed it. It's the usual Idea Factory shit game, but by some strange miracle I kinda liked it despite the jank and absolutely bizarre gameplay design choices. Honestly I can't say if I can recommend it or not. Dungeon Travelers is the objectively better game, but it's Vita exclusive (though I heard rumors of it being remade to PC) and I never actually finished it.

 

[skykiii]

It's the usual Idea Factory shit game,

I honestly had never heard of the company. Can you describe what exactly their "usual" is?

I have this on my wishlist for god knows how long, @skykiii did you keep going through it? Would you suggest it?

Its on my "I occasionally go back to it" list. I think what happened is there was a case of bad timing--I wound up getting it on sale during a period where I was starting to get burned out on modern games in general and I just was not, at the time, in the mood for dungeon crawlers at all.

I will say reading my post again, I made some aspects sound worse than they are--the game is bad at explaining things but the actual mechanics are pretty simple. Even the class-switching, which I was worried about, winds up working on a rule where it basically just opens up more abilities and your current class has a relation to your stats.

I'd say get it on sale.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I honestly had never heard of the company. Can you describe what exactly their "usual" is?

They usually make games with traditional RPG systems, lots of fanservice and not a lot of balancing. Like in Mary Skelter some skills are just completely useless or have random ass MP costs. The games usually have heart, and are not cynical cashgrabs which elevates it over generic gacha/fanservice games.

 

[ShitLurker]

I'd say get it on sale.

Might get it then, it's a bit more than a 5er at the moment on Steam.

 

[skykiii]

So for what it's worth... speaking of RPGs with strange mechanics....

A week or two back I got a bug and started playing The Final Fantasy Legend again (which you can get on Switch via the "Collection of SaGa" though that's not how I'm playing it) and.. that's also a game with some jank mechanics... thing is, immediately I was having a much better time.

I'm not sure how much that means though. Of course I prefer the older game for various reasons, not the least of which this weird condition I have where I will literally start to feel depressed if I'm away from older game consoles for too long (that may sound like I'm meming but I assure you I'm serious). But I just felt like throwing it out there.... I guess you could call it the battle of RPGs that are playable but have odd or unbalanced mechanics.

 

[skykiii]

They usually make games with traditional RPG systems, lots of fanservice and not a lot of balancing. Like in Mary Skelter some skills are just completely useless or have random ass MP costs. The games usually have heart, and are not cynical cashgrabs which elevates it over generic gacha/fanservice games.

So earlier today Youtube actually recommended me a video about Idea Factory's first game, Spectral Tower:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-skIBPWOPE

At the beginning they mentioned Idea Factory has the nickname "Idea Fuckery" in Japan because apparently their games have a rep for being.... bad. And yet creative, at least.

I'm not sure how to feel about this. In the olden days I always had a kinda thing for the companies that occupied this kind of niche--on the NES we had companies like Vic Tokai who, as The Happy Nerd put it, "weren't exactly Capcom or Konami" and yet nevertheless made interesting things.

So now I kinda want to like Mary Skelter, but all this doesn't change the fact that, well... modern JRPGs kinda suck.

(Spectral Tower, incidentally, is a roguelike, which that right there is all it takes to make me not even wanna play it).

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Apparently some of these issues were worse in the original Vita version, which also apparently had completely different dungeon maps.

That's not good to hear, since it'll be the one I play, if I do.

I honestly had never heard of the company. Can you describe what exactly their "usual" is?

"Factory" describes them pretty well, they shit out generic anime games like Kemco but with a higher budget and a hornier edge. You'll find one good game out of a dozen if you're lucky, they're as bad as Nippon Ichi Software. All three are typically churning out crap you can ignore, but a gem slips through the shit sometimes.

Their best game I played was Monster Monpiece, a brilliantly designed and unique game with the curse of being packed full of cringe sexual shit.

A week or two back I got a bug and started playing The Final Fantasy Legend again (which you can get on Switch via the "Collection of SaGa" though that's not how I'm playing it) and.. that's also a game with some jank mechanics... thing is, immediately I was having a much better time.

That game is fun initially but its quirkiness wears on you. It was the first "Final Fantasy" I ever tried, and I couldn't see why it was such a well regarded series, that was a pretty risky move for them to label it that way imo.

 

[skykiii]

That game is fun initially but its quirkiness wears on you. It was the first "Final Fantasy" I ever tried, and I couldn't see why it was such a well regarded series, that was a pretty risky move for them to label it that way imo.

Honestly the alternative, calling it the start of a new series (which it was) was riskier.

As it is, right now I'm near the end of FF Legend. I still have not resumed Mary Skelter.

FF Legend has its quirks, but I at least understand how everything works. It's dumb but its straightforward and comprehensible and does not leave me guessing whether or not something is a good idea. And I do find the basic premise interesting enough. In a lot of ways it feels almost held back by being a Gameboy game, which makes me wonder if the Wonderswan remake improved anything.

Going by memory, I recall the second Final Fantasy Legend being a bit of a step down though.... and I never played much of the third despite owning it for years.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

If we're speaking on Idea Factory, I have to add that they made Neptunia, which had a vital role in CWC lore. Automatically making them the most important video game company on this site

 

[skykiii]

If we're speaking on Idea Factory, I have to add that they made Neptunia, which had a vital role in CWC lore. Automatically making them the most important video game company on this site

Yeah, the video I linked earlier mentioned that.

Neptunia is one of those games where I kiiinda wanna play it just because the premise alone sounds fucking insane.... but also I don't want to play it because the premise alone sounds fucking insane.

Actually, to be honest the idea of game consoles being anthropomorphized as cute anime waifus is sorta lost on me. Like, are these literally the consoles, or just girls who happen to have their names? Is the game's plot actually about the console wars and the idea is that they're some sort of spirit representation and how they do in battle will somehow affect market share in their world? Or, again, are they just girls who happen to dress in vaguely classic-console themed outfits and share the names?

That and the whole "turning something inorganic into a person" is kind of weird to me anyway. Like, they'd almost be more appealing if they were just girls.. the minute you're telling me "imagine having sexual relations with your Sega Genesis" I leave the room and possibly call the police.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Honestly the alternative, calling it the start of a new series (which it was) was riskier.

I suppose so.

As it is, right now I'm near the end of FF Legend. I still have not resumed Mary Skelter.

Do you think you will return to it?

FF Legend has its quirks, but I at least understand how everything works.

To my fleeting memory, my guys were constantly mutating by eating meat and I really had no idea what was going on. It was interesting at least.

Neptunia is one of those games where I kiiinda wanna play it just because the premise alone sounds fucking insane.... but also I don't want to play it because the premise alone sounds fucking insane

The story is a mess by any standard, but the characters are entertaining enough. There's also some type of odd crafting shit, not for weapons but locations. It's hard to explain but it's crap.

The combat is actually very fun, I like the system, but the dungeons are a total bore. Music and art is good. This is all to say, it's an extremely mixed bag. I'd say give it a shot, but I describe it as aggressively mediocre.

 

[skykiii]

Do you think you will return to it?

I hope so, as I hate to have yet another game where I bought the entire series but then didn't bother to play past the first one..... back in the MS-DOS / Windows days I bought a lot of compilations where I wound up in a very similar boat.

(Though I would argue at least there's an artistic quality to the Quest for Glory Anthology and Wizardry Archives that modern games don't have).

To my fleeting memory, my guys were constantly mutating by eating meat and I really had no idea what was going on. It was interesting at least.

You must've had a Monster in your party then.

In FFL your characters can be human, mutant, or monster, and only monsters mutate by eatiing meat. There's actually a strict algorithm to it--if your monster is X and they eat the meat of enemy Y, they will turn into Z. I actually have a Nintendo Power guide (the Gameboy Player's Guide) that maps out all the possibilities.

That said, on my recent playthru I just decided not to bother with that whole mechanic. Basically, Humans only improve when you use stat-increasing items (which you have to buy and are clearly labeled) and mutants level up more like standard RPG characters but also get abilities that have a random chance of changing every couple of battles.

It's stupid, but its comprehensible.

The story is a mess by any standard, but the characters are entertaining enough. There's also some type of odd crafting shit, not for weapons but locations. It's hard to explain but it's crap.

The combat is actually very fun, I like the system, but the dungeons are a total bore. Music and art is good. This is all to say, it's an extremely mixed bag. I'd say give it a shot, but I describe it as aggressively mediocre.

I might just call it a pass. These days, any game that takes more than six hours needs to be fucking amazing or I will hate it (cough*Omori*cough).

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I might just call it a pass. These days, any game that takes more than six hours needs to be fucking amazing or I will hate it (cough*Omori*cough).

Like I said before, IF games have some weird charm to them, which is why Neptunia has a billion installments. The RPG system isn't too bad and some of the jokes will make you grin at least. I think the second and third installments are fun enough at least, the second is especially infamous for having a balls to the wall bad ending.